Caps @ Thrashers 3-16-2009 Post-Mortem

Just burn the tape.

Seriously folks, just burn the tape. We could do our usual breakdown of tonight's game, but what's the point? It clearly wasn't the Caps night. The Caps came out with a tepid effort in the first period, a game that lacked structure and form which for some reason, the Caps just could not handle. The Caps stepped things up in the second period and despite seemingly tilting the ice in their favor, you got the feeling that the Thrashers hadn't lost control of the game.

There are a few points we want to make:

• Tom Poti was wretched tonight. If Bruce Boudreau really wants to get Brian Pothier more ice time, bench Poti and bring Mike "BEAM ME UP" Green back tomorrow night.
• Speaking of Pothier, he played about as well as you could expect for a guy who hadn't played in the NHL for 14 months.
• If there was a player who was the embodiment of what the Caps went through tonight, it was A.O. who fired a total of 20 shots tonight. 10 of which found their way on goal. However, A.O. was unable to register a point and his 10 game point streak came to an end. Though it wasn't for a lack of trying and while he couldn't get the offense going, he tried to get the hitting going becoming a one man wrecking crew. The one complaint we have about this team tonight is that nobody followed his lead. Too many players were content to watch A.O. try to do everything. That can never happen again.
• Jose "Alvin, Simon," Theodore once again showed why people question this team's goaltending. Simeon Varlamov came on relief and wasn't seriously tested but still gave up a goal.

While one game does not make a funk, we have to say that, with the exception of the effort, tonight's game had all the hallmarks of the funk this team was in at the beginning of the month. The Caps fell behind early, had some shaky goaltending and defense, and didn't get much traffic in front of the net and weren't fighting for rebounds. Give Kari Lehtonen credit, he played a good game and deserved a shutout but this team has to get its focus in check because how they play now will directly how they play in the first round.